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20110826

Springs landowner under siege from gold-pirates

Afrikaner land owner Koos Botes, frustrated by the plague of hundreds of illegal gold-pirates descending on his smallholding in Dersley every day, might soon get his license for a legal mining operation -- under the guidance of an experienced gold-miner, a former police-man. History of Springs gold-piracy problems

26 August 2011 Springs journalist Amanda van den Barg writes that with the bodies of six alleged illegal miners discovered on his land this year alone, owner Koos Botes is desperate to find a way to stop them from entering his property. He may soon get a solution: a legal mining operation under the guidance of an experienced gold-miner and ex-policeman.

Access to the property is easy with no fences or security to deter illegal miners from entering the 94.8 hectare site. When the Advertiser went with police and Botes to assess the problem on August 24, a large number of trespassers were spotted, most presumed to be mining illegally. Boes has yet to obtain his mining licence from the ANC-regime – mineral rights rest with the State -- and as a result, feels his hands are tied. “It would cost over a million rand just to put a fence up, and if I’m not making any money from my land, where will I get that money?” he asks, frustrated.

One of the trespassers readily came forward to speak to this newspaper, and was surprised by police’s presence. According to him, he has worked on the land for 15 years, roughly the same amount of time that Botes says he’s owned it. He says that years ago, he paid Botes R25 a week rent to mine on the land, often sharing big finds with him. “But we stopped paying him about two years ago, because the police would come here and cause trouble for us,” he says, adding that he personally did not believe Botes did in fact own the land.

Botes was quick to dismiss this claim, admitting that he knew the man but only because he had been caught trespassing so many times in the past. He admitted that he had indeed got a crew together five years ago, and had charged them weekly rent. “But then I fell ill and decided to stop,” he says, adamant that these men have no right to be on his property. “I work here every day, and use what I find to buy some meat and pap for my family,” the trespasser says. “Most of the people here work for bosses, but there are some tsotsis (armed criminals) who come here to steal, and they are also the ones who bring the bodies of people who have died at other mines,” he claims.

A police officer joined the conversation and assured the trespasser that Botes was definitely the owner of the land. “Really?” the trespasser answered, genuinely surprised. The damage being done to his land will cost Botes around R250,000 to repair, he estimates. According to police, these illegal miners are not only after the gold, but are stealing the sewerage pipes as well.

On the same day, two men were arrested by police and charged with illegal possession of gold. Many of the others who had run away, slowly started returning to work as police left the scene. “If they came to me and wanted to work with me to mine the land intelligently, this wouldn’t be such a problem,” says Botes.

Botes has, however, now been put in contact with an experienced miner, who according to W/O du Toit, is an ex-policeman, and will receive assistance in making his property more secure. He also hopes to have his mining-licence by the end of September. “This project could create up to 500 jobs once it’s off the ground,” he says on a more positive note. It’s not known what kind of yields can be expected from the panning operations. Springs has a plethora of gold-mines and gold-mine dumps which are still being sifted through for gold-dust by thousands of illegal miners, working for illegal syndicates – and frequently engaging in turf-wars and gun-fights to loot each other’s loot.

Fierce gunfights between illegal gold-miners: two more bodies discovered in Dersley, Springs

25 July 2011 - Police discovered the bodies of two murdered black males, neatly placed on the side of Orpiment Avenue, Dersley, early on Saturday morning.25 July 2011 Journalist Amanda van den Barg of the Springs Advertiser noted that the police are regularly finding the bodies of murdered people.It is believed these specific murdered males 'may have been illegal miners'. (zama-zamas). These two men died from various injuries, leading police to suspect they perished in some rock fall.They were then wrapped up and left on the side of the road. Rather than call police to the scene and alert them to possible mining sites, illegal miners are allegedly leaving the bodies in the open for police to find.

8 Aug 2011 - Johan Beytell, chairman of the Casseldale Community Police Sub Forum (CPSF) was one of four Springs residents hijacked within two days. Beytell stopped at the Strubenvale Pick n Pay to pick up a few groceries and arrived at his Casseldale home at around 7:45pm last Tuesday. “I always check to see if I have been followed before pulling into the driveway and opening the gate, because this is where you are the most vulnerable,” he says. Beytell pulled into the driveway and was walking back to the gate when a white VW Polo drove past his house and stopped a few metres away from the gate. Two well-dressed men got out of the car and approached the gate. “I froze as soon as I saw them coming, and when they realised I’d seen them, they started to run towards me,” he says.The Polo sped off and he could hear one of the two men cock a gun as they continued towards him. “I knew I was in trouble, but when you’re actually in the situation, you freeze,” says Beytell, reliving the experience. “They came through the gate, the gun pointed at me and ordered me to lie down.” The thug had the gun pointed at the back of his head while he searched Beytell, taking his money and cellphone. “They even took my handkerchiefs!” he exclaims. “I could see they were nervous, so I tried to stay calm and told them they could take whatever they wanted,” he says. Beytell’s wife and grandchild were in the house. While one of the hijackers held him up, the other reversed the car back down the driveway. Beytell’s wife noticed the car leaving the driveway, looked out the window and saw him lying on the ground. She screamed and terrified that the hijacker might shoot at her, Beytell ordered his wife to go back into the house, where she called the CPSF. Once the car had reached the road, the second man ordered Beytell to stay down and ran out of the yard. “I was convinced that they would try and shoot me,” he says, explaining how he got up and ran towards the gate just as the hijackers stalled the car. Beytell had a radio fitted in his car, in order to communicate with CPSF members from Casseldale as well as from other suburbs - making the situation worse. “CPSF patrollers went out immediately to try and find them, but unfortunately the hijackers could pick up where the patrollers were from the radio communication,” he says. He blames himself: Beytell “admits that despite being observant and extremely cautious when driving, he was "at that moment a soft target. I don’t believe they were following me; if they had, they would have hit me when I first pulled up to the house,” he claims -- believing that they were ‘simply driving around and saw an opportunity when they spotted him in the driveway, his gate still open’.

Elsa Grove, two other women in three attacks: Daggafontein, Eastvale, Dersley - Springs. Aug 8 2011 Afrikaans resident Mrs Elsa Grove of Daggafontein, Springs was assaulted at her home before she got ready to leave for work on Wednesday morning. Mrs Grové had left the car in the road idling and went back to lock up the house when four men approached her.They punched and kicked her, pulling her jersey over her face as she screamed to her husband for help, before punching her again.Two armed black men went up to the house and assaulted her husband, demanding money and the couple’s cellphones. After a struggle, the thugs made their way to the car on the road.“They all climbed into my car and as they drove of, the man who had hit me and was now sitting in the passenger seat of my car, wound down the window and fired a shot at me,” says Grové, still shaky from the ordeal.“Police later found the bullet in my driveway,” she adds.The couple’s silver Honda Ballade was recovered an hour later in Selcourt. “Our neighbours were amazing, calling police and the car tracking company,” she says, grateful that they survived.Another woman, hijacked in Eastvale last Wednesday, is still shocked by the level of violence used on her by her attackers.“They were so rough and were really throwing me around,” she says.She was on her way home when a white Audi sped past her.“I thought somebody was in trouble; I never imagined that it was me,” she says.As she pulled into her driveway, the Audi reappeared. Two men got out of the car and flung her to the ground.They hit her on the back of the head, angry because she had fallen onto her handbag, and they were struggling to take it away from her. They then asked if there was anybody home and made her take them to the house.“Fortunately, I lock my German shepherd in the house and he was barking,” she says. The ordeal came to an abrupt end, with the hijackers rushing back to her car. Both cars then drove away.The woman’s car, a gift from her father, was recovered two days later.A fourth hijacking took place in Dersley last Tuesday morning. A young girl was forced out of her car in her driveway, the hijackers fleeing with her white Opel Corsa.According to police, hijackings have definitely increased in Springs:

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '